Hungry
by metaldragon868
Summary: Ever since Elsa could remember, she had this slowly growing insatiable hunger. Then comes the fateful day when she almost kills her sister, the day when all is revealed. She is named as a cursed daughter of darkness, with Death as her only companion by the trolls, and is locked in a tower until she can be cured. But then one day, an old man comes to take her away. His name is Death
1. Scene 1: Frost's Feast

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 **Hungry**

 **Scene 1:**

 **Frosted Feast**

 _A/n:_

 _Merry Christmas, here's my present to you_

 _It's a little fucked up though, so be careful_

 _Now, to all of those from my previous fic, Madness of Death, you might be skeptical of this because..._

 _Well, it's Frozen. A Disney princess story. Not exactly my standard batch of mad gruesome fun._

 _But just trust me. There's a reason I consider this the sister fic to Madness_

 _Now_

 _To all of those not familiar with my previous works and writing style. _

_Well_

 _If you came here looking for a happy heartwarming tale of sisterly love, filled rainbows, singing snowmen, and fluff..._

 _You are in the wrong place._

 _I know this is something of a rarity in the Frozen fandom, but this is not a love story. Not in the traditional sense, anyways._

 _This is going to be a drama-filled, angsty, gruesome, horrific, dark, profound, and morally ambiguous tale that makes you wonder what evil really is._

 _That's the goal, anyway._

 _So without further ado, let's begin the tale filled with fractured family, murder, crushed dreams, death, broken friendships, killing, forging bonds, brutal victory, and existential angst._

* * *

The man walked through the empty halls of the abandoned section of the castle. It hadn't always been like that, but ever since that day, since they had locked her in that room, it seemed all life had been sucked from the neighboring walls.

Despite the lit candles, the hall felt cold and empty. Chilled air bit through his skin, stealing every bit of warmth they could take. A frosty wind howled through the winding corridors around the tower, and yet, whenever he dared to focus on the sound, it seemed to disappear.

It was no wonder the servants avoided this area like the plague. It felt like the cold touch of the icy mountains themselves had taken hold of this specific part of the castle.

 _What a terrible curse, it is, that has been placed upon us._ He thought darkly with a scowl.

He let out a frosted and angry breath of air, trying to use that anger to force out the fear in his heart. The fear that, much like the frost creeping on the castle, was covering his heart in a fragile shell. It sunk deeper and deeper into his heart each day, and each day he tried to deny it, because he didn't know how to fight it.

With each step he took that fear crawled further and further inside and that cold bit deeper and deeper. He clutched his cloak closer to his shivering body to try and keep it out, but the action seemed more and more pointless the closer he got to that dreaded door.

Finally, he arrived. Stopping right outside the door, he raised his hand to unlock. As he did, his hand froze, momentarily, as he thought about what he was doing. Here, his fear reached a peak, as the thought of what opening that door meant.

 _It would be so simple_ He thought _To just turn around and walk away._

 _After all, who could blame me? Even the guards are scared of patrolling up here._

In the end, he steeled himself as he took in an icy breath, filling his lungs with that cutting cold air.

Opening the door in one swift movement, leaving no room for further hesitation, he stepped through the doorway and into the room at the top of the tower. The moment his foot passed the threshold, he heard the _Crunch_ of frost collapsing under his boot. Looking up in a mixture of surprise, wonder, and terror, he saw that the entirety of the room was covered in frost and ice crystals, a layer of fog hovering over everything.

And at the center of it all, was a little girl sitting near the window sill, a bird in her delicate hands.

"Elsa." The king spoke as a puff of hot breath escaped his lips.

At his words, the girl's head snapped up to meet his gaze. A wide smile broke upon her face as she jolted up to her feet, dropping the bird in her hands. Her icy blue eyes lighting up in joy and recognition, her platinum blonde hair.

"Papa!" She cries out exuberantly.

As she races to meet him, the bird in her hands does not right itself and fly away. Instead, it falls to the ground, silent and still, until it finally crashes against the ground. It shatters into hundreds of crimson shards of ice.

One piece in particular, the eye, comes rolling to a stop at the King's foot. As he looks down in mute horror, the frozen eye seems to stare back up at him in turn.

As the girl approaches him, arms outstretched wide for a hug, he instinctually takes a step back, unable to hide the abject horror filling his being. Upon seeing his reaction, she falters and stops.

"P-papa?" She questions, fearing the reason why her father would look at her like that, why he would react like that.

"I-it's nothing." He says with a forced smile, trying to bury his feelings. He did not want to fear his daughter. He was the King of Airendale, he would not allow himself t tremble in terror before his own daughter, he would not let his own weakness keep him from doing his duty to his children.

"E-Elsa…" He begins, shivering under the depth of the cold. The temperature in the room made the air outside look positively balmy. He could feel the cold seeping into his bones, biting through cloth and flesh to take its toll on him.

"W-why is it so c-cold in here?" He asked.

"Oh…" She said, looking down her simple, yet regal, dress. "I don't really know."

"B-but isn't the ice pretty, papa!?" She brightened, looking back up at him.

The man doesn't have the heart to sink that bright heart of hers. Its times like that that he can hardly believe what the trolls told him. That within her lay a darkness so dark and deep it made the evils of man seem trivial. It was as if death itself would follow her wherever she went, they said.

So instead he just smiles and nods.

"So, what was with that bird, Elsa? Did you make it?" He asks, hoping and praying inside that she did.

So his heart plummets when she shakes her head.

"No, papa, it came in from the window." She answered.

"S-so y-you did that to the b-bird?" He asks, trying to keep the disgust from his voice.

"Er, well…" She says, looking down again, unable to meet his eyes.

"Elsa?" He presses, needing to know the answer, no matter how dark and horrifying it is.

"I was hungry!" She shouts.

He blinks, and it takes all he has not to recoil away, not to draw his sword at her outburst.

"I-I was just so hungry, and it was just there, a-and I just reached out to pet it, and it didn't fly away, a-and it was just so _warm_ and then I just-I just." She stammered, trying to explain herself.

And there it was, the other shoe dropping. The reason why the King could believe what the trolls told him. He's reminded of what she did to her sister, Anna. What she _almost_ did, if the bird is any indication. It was nothing short of a miracle they were able to save her life.

"Elsa" He begins with a frown

"I-I'm sorry, p-papa." Else sniffles, looking down at her hands. "I-I'm just so hungry."

Its times like this that he wished he could hug is daughter. Unfortunately, he just doesn't feel safe doing it. Not with what she can do with but a touch.

 _How disgusting is that? I can't even bring myself to touch her?_ He thought, suppressing an angry snort.

Instead, he sighs, resigning himself to this fate.

"Well, I suppose it's a good thing I brought some food with me, isn't it?" He says with a forced smile, dropping the large bag slung over his shoulder to the ground.

Opening it, he reveals, much to Elsa's exhilaration, everything they need to cook a nice meal themselves up here. Wood for a fire, flint and steel to start it, cuts of venison and beef with pieces of cheese and potatoes to eat.

She looked on eagerly as he lit the fire and hung the sticks speared with meat over it. The scent of cooking deer and cow filled the air, and for a moment the fire pushed out the crushing cold. Flames danced in her icy eyes as her father stoked them, reminding him how beautiful and precious she was. She was still young and innocent, she didn't deserve the scorn and hatred that would be directed to her if the kingdom knew what the trolls told him, if they knew of her darkness. She had to be kept safe and protected, and this was the best way, the _only_ way to do it.

At least, that's what he told himself.

As the meat cooked, they ate the potatoes and cheese together on the floor. Even a scene like this wasn't free from the influence of Elsa's darkness.

The orange tongues of flame all seemed to lean toward Elsa, not dangerously close, but as if attracted to her. As if drawn in by her aura.

They tried to ignore it, tried to make everything feel as normal as possible. The king told of all that had happened in the castle. How her mother and sister miss her.

He told her about how the city was doing and the kingdom as a whole. She always did have the head for politics that her younger sibling lacked. It could have just been a factor of age, or a sign of things to come.

Most worryingly of all was when he came to an inescapable subject.

The weather.

Arendale was getting colder. There was no escaping that.

It was only early fall, and already they had had their first snow. It was unprecedented, and the idea of a long, harsh, winter spelled bad news for the kingdom. They tried not to think about it, but how could they not?

The cold weather, Elsa's powers, there had to be a connection, did there not?

 _Is this my fault?_ Elsa thought _Is it because of me the kingdom is in danger?_

Her heart, still so big and innocent, hurt for all the souls she thought she might be hurting. She had never really wanted to hurt anyone, only wanted to make people happy. And now it might be ruining lives.

Her father, however, had much more fearful thoughts.

 _I can't let them find out_ He thought. _If the kingdom found out about her, they would blame her for the winter. She'd be a scapegoat for everything bad happening to them. They'd hate her, scorn her, maybe even kill her._

He shook his head, trying to push the dark thoughts of his baby girl bare and in chains, being roughly dragged to the execution block to placate the raging masses.

 _No_ He thought sternly. _I will never allow that to happen_

"Just bury it. Bury it all inside yourself and don't let anyone see, don't let anyone know the wrongness inside you." He told her.

"Remember Elsa, you are a danger to yourself and everyone around you. You can never let that power of yours control you. You must deny it, suppress it, and purify your soul. It is the only way to save yourself."

* * *

 **Elsa pov**

It was just another day when it first happened. It had always been there, however. I'd always felt it. That hunger lurking deep inside. No matter how much I ate, how much I tried to satisfy myself, there was always this feeling in the bottom of my stomach, calling out for _more_.

And so it was, on that day, that I finally listened to it.

Anna and I were playing in the snow, no different than usual. I used my powers to make snowmen and snowballs, powers I had since I could first remember. Power over ice and snow to create it from seemingly nothing. Despite that, I knew it didn't really come from nothing, and that every action had a price to pay. The more I used my powers, the more that pit in my stomach expanded, the more that the hunger grew.

So it was, after a long day of playing in the snow and using my powers, Anna slipped and fell on the ice. Nothing serious, really, she was fine, she just had a bruised knee. Still, seeing her hurt, I ran over to try to help her up.

As soon as my pale flesh touched her more rosy skin, I felt it. The warmth in them seeping into my body.

Warmth, a comforting, enticing, and enthralling feeling I rarely had the pleasure of experience. I was always cold, so cold. After a while, it didn't bother me, but whenever I felt the impact of warmth on me, suddenly I realized what I had been missing, and the feeling of losing it again was agonizing. The feeling of going from the kind warmth that soothed my soul back to the pins and needles feeling of the cold was torturous, but it was something I had to deal with every day.

But today was different.

As I felt that warmth sink into my hands and travel up my body, I couldn't pull away. The hunger was too strong, the cold too deep, and I didn't want to me immersed back into so. I gripped tighter, inched closer, my mind filled with the warm buzz of comfort filling it.

"E-Elsa…" Anna choked out in a pained voice, but I didn't listen, I clenched tighter. I drew my left hand to rest on her shoulder while my right grasped her hand, my head resting next to hers, my nose hovering over the crook of her neck as I breathed in the hot air rising off her.

 _I need more, more!_ I thought internally, unable to be satisfied by the meager warmth filling me. I need more, and I need it now.

And as I thought these dreadful thoughts, I reacted on instinct. Something... _inside_ me, reached out into Anna's body through my contact with her, and _pulled_. As it pulled, my mouth opened wide to take in the heat from her body. I could feel the muscles strain as they forced the jaw well beyond the extent it should have gone, bones popping and contorting in pleasurable pain.

"E-Elsa...p-please..." Anna moaned, strength fading from her voice.

I breathed in the scent of warm flesh inches away from my maw, inches away from being consumed. My mouth watered and my soul trembled in anticipation. I wanted it, _needed_ it.

I was hungry, and I needed to feast.

"I-it hurts…" She begged as her pulses slowed.

And like that, I blinked, and realized what I was doing.

Quickly, I dropped her, recoiling from her body in disgust and fear at what I was doing to her. Anna dropped like a doll cut from her strings, crumpling onto the ice. Her skin was pale, her breaths short and ragged, and her auburn hair marred with streaks of white. Worst of all, the light in her eyes was dying, fading from this world. I rushed back and hovered over her, holding her in my hands, but careful not to try to do...whatever I had done before

Her hands were cold, colder than they had any right to be, and yet they were still warmer than my own. Her pulse was weak, almost nonexistent.

I looked down at her, tears prickling edges of my eyes at what was happening, "ANNA!" I screamed, begging her to stay with me.

Soon mother and father came to see what was wrong. They took her from me, desperate to do whatever they could to help her. Before I could see what they did, however, I succumbed to the emotional turmoil within me, and the world fell to black around me.

As I faded to exhaustion, as horrified by what I had done to my sister as I was, I realized one thing.

For the first time in forever…

I finally felt full.

* * *

She tossed and turned as she remembered where it all went wrong. When she almost killed her sister, almost devoured her. She remembered that it felt so _good_. It felt so _right_.

But that was the dark corruption of the evil inside her, her father told her. That was what she must deny. And how could he be wrong? Every time she gave into it, something terrible happened.

What would happen if she couldn't stop herself?

What would happen if she gave into the darkness that lay within her heart?

It was thoughts like these that brought tears to her eyes. Frozen tear tracks made their way down her face as she cried to herself in her room. She was all alone again, her father long gone and the fire empty and dead.

She didn't want to be here, but she knew her father was right. She was too dangerous to be around normal people. She had to be up here for their safety.

She wanted to see mama and Anna again, but she knew she couldn't. Not yet.

" _One day,"_ He father had told her, _"One day you'll be able to come back down and we can be a family again."_

" _But that can't happen until you're fixed. Right now it's like you're sick, and we need to make you better. Until then, you need to stay in your room. It's for the best."_

So while she cried, she knew that she had to do this, that this was necessary. That it was for the best.

Right?

* * *

"When is she going to come down." His wife asked him.

He sighed, knowing full well where this conversation was going. It was futile, really. He had made up his mind, and nothing would shake him from it.

"She'll come back down when she's safe. When we've managed to purify this curse from her." He explained.

"Do you have any idea when that will be?" Idna glared.

"No." He answered with a frown.

"Do you know how you're going to care for her until then?"

"I'll go up there when I can find the time to spend time with her, give her food."

"You mean when you can be bothered."

"Idna" He scowled, becoming angered at the line she was dangerously close to crossing.

"That you had no idea what you were doing when you locked _our_ doughtier up in that tower." She scowled back. "Face it Agnarr, you were scared and panicked. Those trolls told you Elsa was filled with evil and you believed them."

"I believe she is cursed, Idna. If you think for one moment that I've forgotten that she is our little girl, maybe I need to remind you of all the duties that lie upon my head."

"Your most important duty is as a good father."

"Does that make the rest inconsequential?!" He roared, tired of her accusations

"I have an entire country I have to run. While I may love my daughters, I cannot drop everything for them. Already, the winter frosts are coming in fall. The people fear of a long and cold winter." He continued.

"And you blame Elsa for that!" She glowered.

"Are you even listening to me, woman!" He growled, "If I don't make the proper preparations, hundreds could freeze or starve this winter!"

"That's not Elsa's fault!"

"I never said it was!"

"You said plenty."

"Dammit, Idna, not everything is about Elsa!" He finally shouted.

His final words cut through the argument, leaving a deafening silence in their wake. The room seemed to empty of feeling, only distaste left remaining.

Finally, Idna got up from the bed.

"Maybe you should rethink your priorities, Agnarr." She said before exiting the door of the bedroom.

The King sighed deeply. This not how he had wanted things to go.

"…Papa?" A small voice said from the door.

Jolting up, Agnarr saw a small head of read peak through the door fearfully.

"Anna…" He said, at a loss for words.

He knew that face, he knew what it meant. She had been there for the argument. She might not have heard all of it, but she heard enough. Idna, in her rage, probably marched out the door without even noticing the poor girl.

"Come her, Anna." The man said, sitting up on the bed and patting his lap for her to sit on.

Glancing around, Anna finally entered the room. Slowly at first, before running up and scrambling upon his lap.

"Papa, what did you mean when you said not everything is about Elsa?" She asked, looking up at him with her big blue eyes.

He sighed again, truly regretting his words now. No, more how he said it. He meant what he said, but he could see that it wasn't the best way of putting it.

"Anna, darling, your Papa is the King of Arendelle. Which means I have a lot of responsibilities. That means, as much as I might want it, I can't just drop everything to help one child. Even if it is one of my own. Especially in times like these." He began.

"Why not?" She asked.

"Because I need to make sure the people of my kingdom are safe and happy. Right now, a big winter is coming. It's going to get very cold. If I don't make the right preparations, a lot of people could suffer for it. You wouldn't want hundreds of thousands of people to suffer just for one person, would you?" He asked.

"Oh…" Anna realized, looking down at her lap.

Finally she shook her head, no, just like he knew she would.

"I didn't think so."

"But Papa, when will I get to see her again? What do you mean she's cursed? Do you and mama hate each other now?" Anna rattled off.

"Elsa…." Her father began searching for the best way to explain this to his 4 year old daughter.

"Elsa is cursed with a disease, Anna, she's sick. So she needs to stay far away from us so she can get healed." He explained.

"Oh…" Anna said, absorbing that knowledge as fact "Do you-"

"We don't know when she'll get better, Anna." He interrupted "It could be a very long time, and it's going to take a lot of work, so remember to keep your sister in your prayers."

Anna nodded her head seriously at his words.

"Good girl, Anna." He smiled

Then, he grimaced as he turned to the less pleasant topic of her mother.

"Your mother…she's just worrying over Elsa. Not that there isn't anything to worry about, so it's understandable." He began.

"She's just frustrated, I guess." He mused out loud, absentmindedly stroking his beard. "She's a mother, she's supposed to be there for her child, but in this instance there's nothing she can really do, and it's driving her mad."

"So what _can_ you do for Elsa?" Anna asked impatiently.

"Well, we're going to get a cleric and a healer, and see what they can do." He answered

"But how do you know that will work?" She pressed

"Have faith, Anna."

"B-but I remember when Aunt Gertrude got sick, then I never saw her again, what if it's like that?" Anna inquired, balling up her fists as tears pricked the edges of her wide and worried eyes.

"Anna, I promise you…" Agnarr began, pulling his daughter into a tight hug as he spoke in strong and comforting tone.

"Elsa _will_ return to us, and we _will_ be a family again." He declared to her with such surety that she couldn't help but believe him. So as she relaxed and sagged into his warm arms, Agnarr let out a relieved breath.

A breath that came out in a cloud of mist.

His eyes opening wide, Agnarr felt panic flood his body as that biting cold hit him once more. Before he could even react, he felt his strength leave him. He saw frost growing upon every inch of space in the room. The floors, mirrors, even his own body. He breathed one last gasp of sinking terror, before he knew no more.

All throughout the castle, this scene repeated itself, frost creeping upon every surface as people were frozen in time. At the heart of the castle, in the throne room, lay the nexus of this phenomenon.

First, a large circle of frost grew in the center of the room. As it thickened more and more, soon becoming a sheet of ice, fog started to appear in the room as the temperature plummeted. Before long, a line appeared. A line in the air, too dark to be called black, spawned at the center of the circle of ice, and rose 2.5 meters into the air. The fog in the air seemed to be drawn to this 2-deminsional object that seemed to defy the natural order.

The line pulsed, before opening wide, not unlike an eye stood upon it's side, forming an oval shaped portal, leading to a never-ending sea of darkness.

Then, a boot stepped through. Following it came the rest of a figure wrapped in a frayed grey cloak covered in ice and snow. The figure cared a large walking stick in one hand, a lantern attached to the end, while the other lay hidden under their cloak.

As soon as the figure stepped through the portal, it closed shut with a quiet _snap_ , causing a blast of wind to expand out due to the sudden pressure change left in its wake.

"So this is where she is."

* * *

 _A/n:_

 _So that was chapter one._

 _Three more until the end of the trial run for this._

 _This is an experiment to see how well it does. Depending on the results, I'll either continue it or drop it._

 _As for what's going on with Elsa...I'm taking a more scientific approach._

 _Sort of._

 _See, cold is the absence of energy, not energy itself. Things are cold because there is a deficit of thermal energy in it when compared with it's surroundings. And because physics, everything wants to balance out. Things with a deficit want to take in, things with a surplus want to give away. That's how a lot of everything works in physics._

 _Which is how Elsa's working. She doesn't just have ice powers, she's something of a physical manifestation of coldness. She is a deficit, and her hunger is that coldness._

 _In essence, she's an energy vampire now._

 _Kind of, anyways._

 _But going forward, keep in mind that this is going to be an M rated fic for nonsexual reasons. Sex might happen, eventually maybe. But the real reason for the rating is going to be the gore, violence, and dark themes coming it's way._

 _As for the thign with the pov's, I've been experimenting with them. Trying out 3rd person instead of just doing 1st person._

 _But that's it for this story today._

 _Enjoy your christmas or whatever holiday you have, and I'll see you here again later._


	2. Scene 2: Death's Door

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 **Hungry**

 **Scene 2**

 **Death's Door**

 _A/n:_

 _Well I'm finally back with this chap. Took me a while, sorry about that._

 _Hopefully it's quality will make up for that._

* * *

 **Elsa pov**

I was hungry again.

I had been ever since I had woken up to that strange tingling feeling.

Dinner with papa last night had been nice, especially when he read me the story. But now I was hungry again. It wasn't that bad, it wasn't the same agonizing, gnawing, hunger I had felt my first couple nights here. But it was still there. As far as I knew, it would always be there.

The only time it completely went away were the times I…

 _No_ I shivered, trying not to think about it.

 _Those are bad things_ I told myself.

I clutched the pillow in my arms closer to my chest, trying to push the bad thoughts out. The thoughts about how good doing that to Anna felt, how it felt to take everything from those birds. It felt so _good_ to just-just…

 _Consume_.

I shook my head again, struggling to right myself. I got up and began to pace around the room, trying to think of what to do. I could read, papa had left me a lot of books to read. But a lot of them were boring or too hard to read on my own. I wanted to draw, but all of the ink froze when I touched the pen.

"Maybe I could play with the ice again?" I said to myself, drawing on an old habit of mine.

"I could work on making the perfect snowman." I nodded seriously to myself, "Maybe he could be my fri-"

 _Crack_

I stopped, hearing the loud crunch of ice and frost under pressure pulling me from my thoughts. I turned to the door from which the sounds came from. I waited with baited breath as the sounds grew closer and closer, finally stopping before the door itself.

 _Is it papa?_ I wondered. It had to be, who else would come to visit me?

As the doorknob turned, creaking loudly against the ice built up on it, I excitedly thought, _Two visits in a row! He never does this!_

Finally, the lock clicked open. The door hinges screeched in protest, the wood groaned in strain, and the floor cracked under pressure as it slowly creaked open.

"Pa-!" I began to cry, but my voice soon died in my throat.

The man before was not papa, nor could he have ever been.

He was tall, almost having to stoop down to enter through the door. He wore a dark grey fur cloak covered in snow. A hood from the cloak, momentarily shielding his face

His hair messily spilled out of the hood's shadows, ending just before the chin, and being of an aged grey color. He had a thick grey beard that engulfed his chin and fell halfway down his chest. In one hand he held a large staff with a strange crystalline lantern on the end glowing a cold blue color.

Stepping through the door, he stood back up. He looked around the room, his silent gaze taking in contents and a slow and methodical pace. As he turned, the light from his lantern briefly lit up part of his face, revealing its gaunt appearance. His skin was pale and taut against his bones, almost translucent, making him seem skeletal.

Then, his head turned toward me.

Startled, I backed up, trying to push myself as far from him as possible. My back hit the cold stone wall on the opposite side far sooner than I wanted. I was trapped and I knew it. There were only two ways out of this room. One was the door right behind him, the other was the window right behind me.

He looked down at me, one eye shrouded in shadows, the other gleaming a pale icy blue.

Just like mine.

"…Hello, little one." He finally said in a deep, rumbling, cold, monotone.

"W-w-who are y-you?" I stammered, fear filling me.

Instead of answering me, however, he continued to start at me. As if he saw something interesting

Despite that, I couldn't help the curiosity building within me. There was something about this man, something that drew me to him.

Then, without warning, he stepped toward me. I tried to back away, but it was already against the wall.

"W-what are you doing!" I yelled as he got closer and closer.

He extended a hand to me, reaching out for my face. His pale and skeletal hand stretched out to me, trying to caress my face.

 _No no no! Too close! Too close!_ I panicked.

"Get away!" I screamed, thrusting my hand up in defense

 _Crack_

I stopped.

We both just…stopped.

Everything froze for an instant as I looked on at what I had done.

The ice...it had listened to me. It had done as I had commanded so many times before.

But never like this.

This time, instead of making a snowman, freezing a lake, or even making a wall, it had done something terrible.

Up from the iced over floor shot up three large spikes of ice, each one spearing through the old man that had walked through the door. One through his heart, one through his gut, and one through the arm that had stretched out to me.

 _I killed him_ I thought in shocked horror.

 _I am dangerous_ I shivered, _I am a monster._

I looked up toward his face. Against my better instincts, I looked into his face, terrified of what I would see. I looked up, and I saw him gazing down at me, his one visible eye widened ever so slightly in surprise, the only change on his face.

No anger, no fear, just surprise.

Then, just as soon as they had appeared, the spike cracked and shattered. At first into hundreds, then thousands of pieces. With each moment, they shattered into smaller and smaller pieces, before they were just sparkling dust in the wind.

In the absence of them, the man stumbled forward a step, pausing a moment to process what happened. Then…

Then he just stood back up. As if nothing had ever happened. There were still gaping holes in his clothes, but he didn't appear affected by them. No blood fell from the wound, gasps of pain escaped his mouth.

 _B-but…how?_ I thought, confused and afraid.

There was a flash of movement, and before I could react I found his hand wrapped around my forehead, with his face too close to mine. His cold fingers gripped by skin tightly, his strength preventing me from moving, but for some reason I didn't feel like I was in danger.

 _Wait…cold?_

I paused as I just…felt. I closed my eyes as I focused on what was happening to me. I felt a calming feeling coming over me, letting me just relax and think.

His hand was cold.

Everything I had ever touched was warm to me. Everything alive, at least.

It was in interesting feeling, different from my general coldness. More intense, but at the same time less painful. Not like pins and needles on my skin, more like…a cool kiss. The more I thought about it, the more it felt like...

"…Interesting…" Came his quiet voice, pulling me from my thoughts.

Slowly, he pulled his hand from my head. He stood back up to his full height. Despite how he loomed over me, I couldn't help but feel that he had…relaxed, somehow.

"It seems it's just as I thought." He murmured.

"W-what is?" I stammered.

"You are, indeed, the one I seek. And you are what I thought you were." He answered, speaking softly and evenly. Even still, his voice held a trembling power in it. It seemed to drown everything else out.

"I-I am?" I wondered. Then, his words fully reached me.

"W-wait, you know what I am? You know what's wrong with me?!" I shouted, passion finding me once more.

This man, he knew what was wrong with me. He could fix me. If he fixed me, I could hug Papa again. I could see my family again!

 _I can go home!_ I thought, hope fulling me.

"I do." He said simply.

"Then you can fix me, right?" I asked, once again filled with hope for the future.

"Fix you?" he questioned, sounding confused.

At this, I faltered.

"Y-you're a Priest, right? You're here to heal me." I said.

"I am no Priest." He answered

"I…you…you're not a priest?" I said, bewildered.

He shook his head calmly in response.

"Then…" I gulped, fear beginning to seep into me. "W-who are you?"

But as I recalled what he had done before, how he acted before, and how he _felt_ before, I restated my question.

" _What_ are you?"

He stopped for a moment, seeming to consider my question, thinking about how to properly respond. With each second he waited, my suspicion and fear grew and grew.

"…I…" he began finally, rubbing his long beard in consideration, "I suppose you could go by the name many know me by."

"It is not my true name, but it suites me well enough." He reasoned

"I am Death."

My eyes went wide, and my blood froze in my veins. The fear within me fell to waves of utter terror. Death itself stood before me, I had no doubt of that. What else could be impaled upon spikes of ice and barely even acknowledge it? What else could feel cold to me, than the cold grasp of death itself?

"D-d-death?" I stammered, shrinking further into myself. Any hope of salvation fleeing my mind.

"Y-you said you were looking for m-me. You're here to k-kill me, a-aren't you? Y-you're here to t-take my soul." I stuttered, terror filling me as the only logical conclusion took hold of my mind.

"I-I don't want to die. I-I'm sorry for the bird. I-I didn't mean t-to, I-I was just so h-hungry." I tried to explain, panicking

"Hungry…" He repeated with a deep rumble.

"I'm just so h-hungry." I said, repeating myself.

And now that I thought about it, I felt even hungrier than I had moments ago. I felt starved, like my stomach was completely empty. I could feel the empty pit within me begin to gnaw at my sanity, now that I knew of its presence.

"…That hunger…" He said, pulling me from my thoughts, "…would you like to do something about it?"

"W-what?" I asked, startled and confused by the questioned.

"…I…am not here to kill you." He began.

"I am here…because you are special."

"Special?" I repeated, thrown off by the fact that Death…wasn't here to kill me.

"You have…a connection…to me. A piece of the Void has found quarter within your soul, connecting it to itself, and to me." He explained.

"What's the Void?" I asked, the hunger of curiosity overriding my fear.

"The Void…" he trailed off.

"…It's…difficult to explain." He admitted.

"…I suppose you could call it the end." He finally said

"The end of what?" I wondered.

"The end of everything." He responded.

I blinked, "The end of…everything?"

"A realm of death, and the end of everything. It's….not a perfect explanation." He confessed, "But I suppose it will do."

"A-and I have it…in me?" I clarified.

"So it seems." He responded.

"Can you fix it?" I asked, desperately hoping he could.

"Fix it?" He questioned.

"Yes." I said, "I'm wrong, and it hurts. I-I want you to fix me. Make me better."

"Please." I added.

"But…" He paused, confused, "You aren't broken."

"Yes I am!" I shouted, anger and frustration filling me.

"I'm broken and wrong and dark and evil!" I ranted.

I clenched my fists, my anger at how everything had all gone wrong filling me. My frustration of how helpless I was to fix this, at how I couldn't be with my family fueling me.

"I want to be fixed! I want to be normal!" I fumed.

Frustrated and despondent tears traveled down my face, freezing soon after leaving my eyes.

"I-I-I just want to be able to hug my papa again." I admitted, anger giving way to desperation and despair as I tired myself out.

"I just want to be able to see my family again. I want them to be safe around me, I don't want to hurt anyone anymore." I confessed, collapsing on the ground.

He stood there, looking at me as bawled out onto the frosted ground, crying my heart out. Finally, he spoke up.

"…then in that case." He said.

"You should leave with me."

"L-leave with you?" I sniffled, looking up at him in surprise.

"Yes…" he said, crouching down to sit on the floor, putting himself on a more even height with me.

"I would take you from these walls, out to the mountains and forests." He said, gesturing our towards the frosted window.

"What? No! I want to stay with my family!" I cried.

"Do you not love your family?" He inquired.

"Yes, but-but there has to be some way to do it here!" I stammered, "I mean, you could ask my papa. He's the king, I'm know he could find out a way to make it work."

"Potentially." He acknowledged.

"But in the meantime, you are a danger to your family."

"I…what?!" I stopped.

I knew I was already, but there seemed to be more…weight…with him when he said it.

"If you let your hunger grow too much, and if you let it rule you, you will be the greatest danger they ever face." He began.

"The hunger…" He said, summoning a small ice sculpture of me in his hand, "Will grow inside you. If you do not feed it correctly, it will change you."

"You will lose your sanity," He explained, the sculpture of me changing and twisting in his hands. "You will lose your mind."

"And you will lose your humanity," the sculpture of me turning into a twisted, crystalline, facsimile of a human. A massive maw with jagged teeth, sunken eyes, long spindly limbs, and wild frayed hair characterized the being.

My eyes went wide and my heart stopped as I gasped at the sight.

It was a monster.

 _I'm going to become a monster_ I thought in horror.

"If you stayed here, this is all but assured to come to pass. Should it happen, there is very little anything in this castle, of even this kingdom, could do to stop you on your rampage." He told me. "Even if I was here to stop you, it would not be immediate, and it would not be clean. I could not guarantee the safety of your family if you were in their presence."

"Anna…" I whispered, remembering that day when I nearly killed her.

I shook my head as I tried to push the thoughts from my mind.

 _I can't, I won't let that happen!_ I thought with frantic firmness.

"Besides…I doubt you would want your family to see you in such a deplorable state. They would not understand." He pointed out.

I pursed my lips, and almost cried again, but I realized the truth of his words.

"I…I don't want to hurt them. I want them to be safe." I admitted.

"But couldn't you tell them where we're going? Couldn't we visit them or something?" I exclaimed, desperately clinging to a dying dream.

"I would prefer not. They would not understand. These are not things for mortal comprehension. Human morals might get in the way. They might come looking for you, trying to take you home or give you comfort. Instead, they would arrive at the worst time." He denied.

"It could be while you hunger for the flesh and soul of humans, or while you are consuming something yourself. Either way, if they saw it, they could never look at you the same way." He explained.

"Imagine if they surprise you? If your father comes and tried to just carry you home? What if you reacted much the same way you did me?" He put forth.

I shuddered as I recalled what he said.

 _What if I used my powers, and hurt them?_ I feared.

"You're very touch is dangerous to them. You walk as a shadow of death itself. Very little is safe from you." He continued.

"And you are?" I questioned.

At this, he laughed. A deep, bellowing laugh that seemed to shake the ice in the room. Winds seems to summon themselves out of thin air, swirling around the snow and fog in the room in connection to his chuckling.

"Girl, I am Death, whilst you are just a disciple. You cannot harm me." He chuckled, mirth dancing in his eye.

I pouted, but conceded his point. Impaling him with three spikes had done nothing but delay his progress, and I doubted that it would have done even that had he actually tried.

"So…" I began, "If I go with you…you'll teach me?"

"You'll help me get better, learn how to control myself?"

"Yes." He answered.

"And when I'm done…you'll let me come home?" I questioned, making sure this was a good idea.

"You are free to do whatever you wish to do. I am simply giving you options. You can leave for home whenever you choose, whether ready or not. You can even stay here, if you so choose." He explained

"When…when would I be able to come home, if I was trying to get complete control over my powers?" I asked.

"Hard to say…" He mused, "I've never had to deal with a disciple such as yourself."

"What do you mean?" I asked

"A human. A young one at that. Usually it would be things of great innate power, or normally isolated beings. But you? You are a human. Something innately weak and social." He pointed out.

"You don't seem so great yourself." I frowned, feeling slightly insulted by his words.

"That is only because you are a disciple." He chuckled again, "Had you been anyone else, you would currently be a frozen corpse in this room."

I stopped, my eyes widening again at his implications.

"Yes, it's quite cold in here right now." He noted, gesturing to the fog in the room. "The air itself is turning to liquid, it's so cold. That, in it of itself, is more than enough proof of what you are."

"You mean…" I trailed off, not wanting to think of it.

"If your 'papa' was here with us, he would undoubtable be dead." He finished, not giving me the luxury of ignorance.

"It's one of the reasons you're so dangerous. Merely being in your presence will eventually be enough to take someone's life, regardless of your intent." He explained.

I thought about what he said, the truth of it reaching me. I recalled how _cold_ papa seemed last time he came here. Up until the fire was up, he could barely stand it.

 _Will it get worse?_ I wondered. _Am I the reason it's all falling apart?_

"You can help me get better, right?" I pleaded. "You can get rid of it?"

"Perhaps eventually, but not here. Not right this moment." He answered.

I lowered my head in defeated acknowledgement. All that he had said to me traveled through my mind. I processed all of it, thought about all the consequences.

I wanted to stay, I wanted to be with my family, but…if I did…I could kill them.

Then I thought about what my father said about being ruler.

He said, _"It's not about what you want, it's about what's best for the kingdom, what's best for everyone. Many times you're going to have to make personal sacrifices, terrible ones, in order to do what's best. But you have to be strong, and do it for the good of the people."_

 _I have to be strong_ I thought resolutely, steel growing within me

"…I'll do it." I said quietly

"Hmm?" He said with quirked brow.

"I said I'll do it." I declared more adamantly

"I'll go with you. I'll learn how to control myself, and maybe even cure myself of this curse." I told him.

"Alright." He said, standing up from the floor.

"In that case…" He turned, stepping to the middle of the room. "Let us be off."

And with that word, he slammed the butt of his staff down on the center of the room. With it, a blast of air exploded out from the center, before rushing back in. It all coalesced into a small, tiny really, black dot in the middle of the air. The dot extended into a black line, hovering there. It pulsed, then opened like an eye into a great black portal into the unknown.

I started at in wonder for a few moments, feeling something tugging me toward it, calling me…home.

"Come along, child." He chided, waiting at the door for me.

 _This is it_ I paused

 _There's no turning back after this_

* * *

Agnarr blinked

He blinked as he began to perceive again. He began to process again, to _think_ again. Remembering what had happened, he started.

"Papa?" Anna said in his arm fearfully, worried about what had happened. "What happened?"

"Anna I-"He stopped himself. He had an idea, not a great idea, but an idea nonetheless. And that idea terrified him. But did he want his child to know? Did he want his child to experience this terror too?

"Nothing, Anna, it was nothing." He hastily comforted her.

Soon, the door to his room flew open, with an irate, confused, and fearful Idna coming through.

"Agnarr, what was that? With the frost and the…" She paused, searching for the words

"Darkness?" She finally said, fear seeping into her voice.

"Was it…" She gulped, not wanting to think of what it could have been.

"Idna, take Anna." Agnarr hurriedly said, handing Anna to her.

"Wha-where are you going?" She said frantically, out of her depth.

"To check on Elsa." Was all he said, before he ran out the door.

Agnarr was deaf to the cries of his wife, instead running at full speed to the empty section of the castle. The frost was gone, like it was never there to begin with. All along his way, Agnarr saw people walking about in a daze, as if everyone in the castle had been put to sleep by the spell put over them.

With each person he saw, his fear grew.

 _How far did this go?_ He wondered.

 _And is she safe?_

He ignored the painful cold as he entered the tower. He ignored how somewhere, deep inside, he knew it wasn't as cold as it should have been.

He burst through the door, not even bothering to knock. Stumbling inside, he found the frozen prison much as he had left it. With one exception.

Elsa was nowhere to be seen.

"ELSA!" He yelled, calling out to her in some desperate hope she was still nearby. But deep in his heart, he knew the truth.

Elsa was long gone.

He feel to his knees, weeping for his lost little lamb. But as he looked at the ground, he saw there, written in frost, one last message.

" _I'm sorry Papa, but I realized that I was too dangerous to be around you and Mama and Anna. It's just like you told me, the ruler has a responsibility to protect their people, regardless of how much it hurts them. So to protect you, I've gone away."_

His tears fell and his heart bleed upon reading these words, knowing he had told her these things, hoping to shape her into a good Queen one day.

 _But I never meant this_ He cried.

It is unfortunate, however, that he wept as he did. For his falling tears fell upon the last lines of her final letter. They melted and obscured the last lines, the critical lines where she vowed to return.

So when Agnarr looked down again, and saw nothing more than a frozen puddle of his tears, he thought little of it.

Instead, he got up. Wiped the tears from his face, and walked out of the room with a firm look on his face. He marched back down the tower, steeling himself with each step.

When he finally arrived in the castle proper, he rounded up as many men as he could. He ordered his knights to search far and wide for his little girl, proclaiming a kidnapper had stolen her from the castle, but also ordering them to keep the public from knowing she was gone.

So out the knights went, on horseback they rode into the forests of the kingdom. Trackers looked for any and every sign of her presence, and the royal guard looked around the castle grounds.

But they never got far.

For on that day, a massive blizzard came in. Unprecedented for it's time, all were caught unawares. The knights were forced to turn back, lest they become lost in the wilds. The trackers had to return inside, lest they freeze to death. And there was no sign of her within the castle itself.

Agnarr's frustration grew, but there was nothing he could do. All barricaded themselves inside in the face of the frozen onslaught. It was all they could to do hope to survive.

The blizzard lasted for 2 days, and by the time it was over, all his advisors told him that any hope of finding the girl was lost. In fact, not knowing the strangeness about the girl, they told him that any hope she was even still alive out there was realistically insignificant. They told him to give up, that even if they _could_ find her after all the snow fall, she would be nothing but a frozen corpse.

Despite this, the King never truly gave up hope. He knew that she could survive a Blizzard. Deep down, he even suspected she made it herself to cover her tracks. How, he had no idea, but he knew she was alive.

But he also had more pressing concerns. His kingdom was buried in snow. He wanted to send his armies out to search for his precious daughter, but he couldn't. He needed them here, helping his people recover from this storm.

Idna ranted and raved about how cold he was being. About how he need to find their little girl. They fought and fought for hours, days, weeks, until finally they stopped. Both of them were tired. Agnarr even more so, having the weight of two worlds on his shoulders.

They realized that they had forgotten someone. Little Anna cried by herself, wondering why her mother and father were fighting, wondering why she couldn't see Elsa, wondering why all these terrible things were happening to her.

Had she been bad?

Had she made this happen?

Did she deserve this?

Seeing their daughter distraught, and their kingdom in chaos, they realized they couldn't keep on like this. Something had to give.

If not for the love they shared for their daughter, it would have been their marriage. They would still be King and Queen, but there would be no love between them. Their relationship would be nothing more than a façade.

But Anna did exist, and she needed both of them to come out of this tragedy.

So they did their best to put aside their differences and work to become a family again.

Even though the put the issue of Elsa aside, they never forgot about her. They still believed, deep down, that Elsa was still alive out there.

 _And one day, we'll bring her home._

* * *

 _Clack_

I blinked.

 _This…_ I thought, mildly surprised, _is not what I expected._

It was…silent. I expected…well, I'm not really sure what I expected. Perhaps the wails of the damned? The Sound of ruin and decay? Howling winds? Chanting?

Instead, there was just deathly silence. I could hear my own heart beating in my chest, it was so quiet. A small sign I was still alive, and that this was all real.

 _Clack_

Turning, I saw…Death…take his place beside me. He spared me a look, before gesturing forward with his staff. Looking ahead, I saw a path rise before me.

The Void was…just that, really. A void. An empty place of nothingness. It was an empty black that seemed to stretch on forever.

And yet…I wasn't unsettled by it, strangely enough.

At his command, a path of white ice seemed to rise up from nothing, directing a path forward. I tentatively put my foot upon it, finding the whole thing odd, and not sure if I should trust it. But, when it held firm, I let my second foot follow suit. Soon I was walking upon the icy path, each step making a resounding _Clack_.

Before long, something…odd…happened.

I began to see shrubs, trees, and even an actual terrain appear around me. Each was desolate, dead, and empty. The trees and shrubs were just the pale bones of what they once were, a stark white against the black of the world around them. The ground was cold, dead, and dark. It was like a dead image of the real world.

But again, despite all of this, I never truly felt uncomfortable.

Sure, my conscious mind found it strange and unsettling, but underneath, my gut felt…right. I wasn't cold, I wasn't hungry, I felt…normal.

 _Normal_ I thought _Is it because this is where I belong?_

 _In the land of the dead?_

"…Is something wrong?" His voice echoed out, pulling me from my thoughts. Startled, I turned around to look at him.

"N-no, i-its just…" I trailed off, not really knowing how to voice my thoughts and concerns, or even if I should.

"Do I belong here?" I finally asked.

"…hmm" He considered, looking around.

Now that I looked at him, I saw that his crystalline lantern acted as a beacon of light in this endless dark. At first I had thought that the path more or less grew in front of me, but behind me I could see the light of the lamp fading into dark nothingness. Something that made me step closer to the being that was my guiding light.

"…I'd say it is because your soul has a piece of this place in it. That piece has a powerful influence over your soul, and it recognizes that it is back…home" He explained.

"It's nice…" I murmured.

"Can I stay here?" I asked on a whim

"I could train here, right? And I wouldn't hurt anyone?" I continued.

"…I…do not recommend that." He warned, "It would not be a good idea."

"This is the realm of the dead, for the dead and that which belongs in the abyss. It is not for mortals. Even though you could stay here without fear of death, as you know it, you would not be unchanged." He cautioned. "…In fact…I doubt you would even want to return after too long. Even if you did, your family would not recognize you as the Elsa they cared for."

"o-oh..." I stammered, frightened by the picture he painted.

"So where _are_ we going?" I asked

"Here." He said, stopping abruptly.

I stumbled forward, startled by his sudden declaration. Headless of my clumsy movement, he instead tapped his staff against the ground once more. Just as before, an opening appeared, much like an eye. This time, however, it was a bright white.

I looked at him for a moment, searching for some sign of what he wanted me to do. But, instead, he just stood there, much like he was waiting on me to continue.

So, with much trepidation, continue I did.

Stepping through the portal, I let my foot hit the ground outside the Void.

 _Crunch_

Looking down, I was somewhat startled to see my foot landing deep into a snowy forest. Pulling the rest of myself through the opening, I was assaulted by an explosion of sudden sound as I entered the real world once more.

Winds howled as they whipped thick clumps of snow around. Despite how cold I logically knew it should have been, I couldn't help but feel as if it was nothing more than a nice cool breeze. Looking around, I could easily see that there was a blizzard going on.

 _But it's only mid fall. How can this be happening so soon?_ I worried

Hearing another soft crunch behind me, I turned to see Death enter behind me, the black oval closing behind him.

"Where is this?" I asked him

He paused, seeming to think about how to phrase it properly,

"…several dozen kilometers from the outskirts of the city. In the Frostback Mountains." He finally answered.

My eyes widened at what he had said.

 _But…that's several days' worth of traveling._ I thought in shock, _we couldn't have been walking for more than a few minutes._

"We should probably make camp." He announced, pull me form my thoughts.

And without another word, he began walking in a direction, headless of the heavy snow. His lantern once again acted as a beacon in the storm, it's cool blue light leading the way through the thick winds.

It was weird, following him through the storm. Not as weird as the Void, but still strange. It was a case of logically knowing I should be having trouble, despite finding that everything actually felt more clear than normal.

It was as if…as if I could _sense_ the snow. As if I could feel _through_ the icy winds and frozen snow itself.

 _Strange…_ I considered, _but I suppose, considering what all I can do, it makes a certain amount of sense._

Finally, we reached a thick cluster of trees creating a layer of cover for us. There was relatively little snow on the ground here, and the winds weren't as fierce. Not that either mattered to me, evidently. It's probably why we stopped here instead of someplace else that would offer more protection, like a cave.

"…Here should be good for now." He announced, sitting down upon a suitable rock next to a particularly large tree in the center of the area.

I sat down, leaning against the snow covered tree, and letting myself slide into the snow. Instead of feeling cold and wet, it felt soft and comforting, like I was resting upon a cool bed.

No sooner had I sat down, than did I feel a level of exhaustion come over me. I yawned loudly, trying to force away the feelings of sleep.

 _Why am I so exhausted these days?_ I wondered.

Seemingly reading my mind, Death spoke up, "…You should rest. You are undergoing a period of transformation, your…otherness…is coming into effect more. Your body is compensating by requiring more rest for the changes to occur." He explained.

"Changes?" I said worriedly.

"Yes. Your hunger only became so strong recently, correct? It is because of these changes that it happened."

"Can you stop them? Reverse them? Something?" I panicked, not wanting to become more inhuman than I already was.

"Patience, girl." He stopped me

"Your answers will come in time, but for now, it would be best if you rested. We can talk more when you awake." He said.

"But what about you?" I asked.

He simply gave me a curious look, as if wondering what I could possibly be worried about.

I blushed nervously and looked away, realizing that worrying about Death itself was probably foolish.

So, turning around and lying upon the snowing ground, I tried to imagine it as nothing more than a soft, fluffy, bed, and let my mind drift to sleep. As I did, I had one final thought.

 _Papa, I hope you got my note_ I prayed.

 _Because it might be a long time before I see you again._

* * *

 _A/n:_

 _Alright, well that was eventful_

 _Yes, Elsa is going to be growing up outside the kingdom_

 _Yes, she isn't going to be heading back any time soon_

 _And yes, she is essetially lesser walking death._

 _As I continue working on this, I'm going to try and get across Elsa's otherness, how inhuman she is. Finding a blizzard a cool and comforting breeze is one of them._

 _I'm also taking a somewhat classiscal interprestation of death._

 _I've always liked the versions that were more subtle, more subdueded. They did run around kicking and screaming, because they didn't need to._

 _They were Death._

 _They were inevitable_

 _What could they possibly fear?_

 _So yes, I'm going to try and express inhumanity in each of them. Something I find quite fun._

 _Anyways, going from here, a lot of changes are going to take place. We've taken a hard turn from canon on chapter 2, and unless I want to pull out some bull shit, it's going to be hard to go back._

 _I'm also not going to be taking an immediate timeskip to the timespan of Frozen, or when they become young adults in general._

 _There will be timeskips because I don't feel like taking 15 or so literal years to get there, but there isn't going to be one sudden hard one where I'm like "10 years later, durring which all of the development happened". I mean, I got so much shit I can pull out of these developmental years._

 _Do you know how much fucked up shit I can go through during that time?_

 _A lot._

 _The answer is a lot._

 _But that's all to come later._

 _As for the air turning to liquid thing, that's just an example of how she's going to be expressing death. Instead of it being violent and bloody, it's going to be through sheer absence fo energy, or "cold". Now, air's a complicated mix of a lot of things. Two of the major components of air are oxygen and nitrogen. Nitrogen turns to a liquid at temperatures of about -320 degrees F, or -195 degrees C. Which is really fucking cold. It wasn't technically **quite** that cold in the room yet, but it was approaching that._

 _Either way, it's not a temperature you could survive._

 _And they survived just fine because...magic. Doesn't have to make sense._

 _But in effect, Elsa has a body temperature well below freezing, and dropping the hungrier she is. Again, not dead cause magic._

 _Everyone else? Not so much._


	3. Scene 3: Hunger's Hold

**:**

 **/-|-\**

 **\/-\\_|_/-\/**

 **/\\-/_|_\\-/\**

 **\\-|-/**

 **Hungry**

 **Scene 3**

 **Hunger's Hold**

 _A/n:  
_

 _Sorry it's been a while, but I'm back now_

 _In the meantime, I'd like to thank Red for her help with this, couldn't have done it without her._

* * *

"Why are we even up here?"

"We're looking for the princess." Answered the knight, his eyes searching through the snow covered foliage for any sign of her.

"Everyone knows she's probably dead. Why can't he just accept that?" Asked the man rhetorically.

"It's his _daughter_. He's not a cold blooded bastard, he loved the girl." The other explained.

"Yeah, but he's the king. He should have more important things on his plate."

"How would you respond if it was _your_ daughter that had gone missing?"

"…you have a point."

"Both of you, stop standing around talking, we have a job to do!" Called out their commander.

"Sir!" The both respond.

They were knights of the kingdom of Arendale, specifically the Legion of the Silver Vargar. A legion of hunters, trackers, rangers, and cavalry designed for quick response to hostile approaches on the Kingdom, and to track down any and all spies trying to cross the border. They were the watch dogs of the Kingdom, standing guard in their immaculate silver armor.

After being the command to search for the princess in the wake of the massive blizzard, they had split up into 10 squads of 12 soldiers to track her down through the massive wilderness of the Frostback Mountains. Each squad had two rangers, one specially designated tracker, 3 mounted knights, and six other soldiers.

"Anders!" Shouted their commander from the back of his silver armored horse.

"Sir!" The tracker called out from ahead, peaking his hooded head out from behind a tree.

"Find anything yet?" He asked.

"I see a frozen pond ahead near a cave." Anders responded.

"A cave? She could have taken shelter there." The Commander reasoned. "Lead on."

Moments later the squad found itself looking across the frozen pond toward the cave surrounded by trees on the opposite side.

"There it is." Anders gestured.

"Is the ice thick enough for us?" Asked one of the knights

"It'd be dubious with your horses, but you should do just fine on foot." One of the rangers commented, eyeing the ice carefully.

"Alright…" The commander pondered.

"Rangers, get up into the trees and cover the area, make sure nothing comes upon us and look for any sign of her." He commanded, "Anders, lead the way with the soldiers toward the cave. If you see any sign of the girl, we shall dismount and join you. Until then, we shall keep watch in case something happens."

"Sir!" They chorused, getting into position.

"I wouldn't want to have come all this way just to have the girl attacked by wolves, or to find the cave a bear's den." He murmured.

Following his command, the six soldiers spread out upon the ice with the tracker leading the way.

Each soldier wore mostly chainmail and leather to stay light and unencumbered enough to keep up with the quick pace the Silver Vargar set. They wore polished silver helms with a wolf motif and carried polished steel longswords, wooden shields, and silver daggers. Some carried a crossbow on their back, others a lance.

The tracker crept forward across the ice, testing each step to make sure there were no weak points. All the way, he kept one hand on his dagger, ready to use it should anything happen.

When he finally reached the cave, he peered inside, only to see that it was empty. However, he felt a draft coming through it. Turning to his commander he yelled, "Sir!"

"It's not a cave, it's a tunnel!"

"A tunnel?" He repeated.

"Yes, sir!" The scout confirmed. "She could be deeper inside, or even on the other side."

The commander hummed in thought, considering his options. Their horses wouldn't fit inside, but they couldn't ignore the possibility that she was in or through the tunnel, and trying to find the exit of the tunnel from the other side was just foolish.

As he pondered these things, the soldiers on the ice began to relax as mist rose from the frozen pond.

The rangers still kept watch with their bows as they sat in the snow covered trees. The tracker looked over the cave, trying to discern more clues from the entrance of the cave.

The two other knights checked over their equipment, making sure that they still had their Wheelock pistols and making sure they were ready for use.

Wheelock pistols, a recent innovation came to the kingdom from overseas trade. Since then, they had learned how to make them on their own, but due to the lack of conflict Arendale experienced, they weren't in high demand. Instead, the complicated but reliable Wheelock design was restricted for officers, knights, and other soldiers of high rank or status, such as the Royal Guard.

For the most part, however, the kingdom still had, by some standards, antiquated military equipment.

It was during this time of nothing and distraction, that it happened.

 _Crack_

Suddenly, all the soldiers jolted into alertness. They frantically looked around, trying to see where the sound of ice cracking came from. The rangers looked on from above, trying to see if they could discern anything.

One soldier took a brave step forward, trying to see if the ice would crack again. When it remained solid, he let out a cold breath of mist, relaxing once again.

 _Crack_

"AH!' Screamed out one of the soldiers, falling to one knee as he grasped hold of his left leg, dropping his sword and shield. The other soldiers ran over to him to try and see what was wrong and provide help. When they reached him, the cause of it was plain to see.

A half meter long icicle was imbedded in his shin, piercing through the armor and exiting out of the other side of his leg. There were other, smaller, shards of ice closer in size to a crossbow bolt than an arrow that were clustered around the main one.

"Herregud, va' fan?" Wondered one soldier looking over the man.

Looking around, they tried to find the cause of it, but all they could see was mist rising up from the frozen lake and the wind moving it.

"Watch out!" Cried one of the rangers.

Suddenly, the mist moved, and _something_ shot out of it, slamming into chest of one of the soldiers, before _passing through it_ , and falling back into the mist. The soldier in question now had a massive ice spike sticking out of his chest along with several shard of ice piercing through his chainmail.

"Carlsson!"

He fell to the ground, dead.

The other soldiers circled around their injured man, raising their shields in some meager attempt at defense. The rangers kept their bows trained on the ice, looking to strike down any sign of movement. Anders, however, had found himself trapped on the other side of the lake. He had his crossbow, but his back was against the wall.

Suddenly, they saw a flash of movement in the mist again. This time prepared for it, they all moved to face the spirit accosting them.

Or so they thought.

When the spirit burst from the mist, it took a form both familiar and chilling. The simplest way to describe it would be as the skeleton of a snake, made from ice, and flying through the air leaving a trail of ice shards behind it.

It was a creature told in many stories to them as children. Along with tales of ogres, trolls, and giants.

It was an Ice Wraith, a spirit of the ice itself.

The moment of shock passed quickly, however, and the rangers let loose their arrows. The shots flew true, but they flew straight through the transparent body of the spirit, doing nothing. When it came upon the soldiers, one slashed at it with his sword. But just like the arrow, it simply passed through the Wraith's body.

In return, the spirit passed into the man's arm, worming its way up through the appendage, before reaching his head. All along the way, shards of ice shredded his skin, tearing through the flesh and muscle. When it finally entered the man's skull, all the liquid in his head froze, instantly killing him. Soon after, several large shards lodged themselves within the horrified face of the man, one in the eye, another in the forehead, and another one again straight through his gaping wide mouth and out the back of his throat.

"Skit, Algren's dead!" One soldier exclaimed.

"Helvete jävlas fan!" Another cursed, panic setting into the squad.

"It's coming around again!"

Spinning around, they saw the spirit flying back at them, intent on taking it's next victim. But despite that, there was nothing they could do. They were helpless. Their weapons did nothing, their armor couldn't protect them, their shields nothing more than a handicap. The rangers sat upon the trees, helpless. Anders stood by the side, hope dying within him. And the soldiers could do little more than stand there and wait for the cold grasp of death to take them.

 _ **BANG!**_

Suddenly a deafening blast rang out.

It shattered the tense silence as surely as the head of the Ice Wraith shattered before their eyes.

Turning back, they saw none other than their commander, Sergeant Gunvaldson, aiming his pistol right at where he slayed the spirit. They looked upon it with wonder, both having rarely seen a firearm in actual use, and never having thought they could have killed the spirit in such a way.

Holstering his pistol, their commander turned his helmeted head back to them.

"Alright men, gather up the dead and wounded." He command, "We're heading back to the city, we need to report th-"

 _Crack!_

 _Cra-cra-cra-cr-cr-crack_

The sound of ice cracking and breaking all around them filled the air. Suddenly a line of spikes shot out of the ice, weaving it's way over the frozen pond. Before they could react, one of the soldiers was impaled on several of these spikes as they shot into the air. They formed a wall, separating the soldiers and the tracker from the rest of the squad. Then, not allowing the squad a breath of respite, the mist grew thicker and denser. The knights could see things moving in that mist. Writhing in the frosted air seeping out from the lake.

A thick fog enveloped it, keeping the all else from seeing what happened beyond.

There was a single tense moment where all was silent.

Then they heard screaming. They heard crunching. They heard ripping. They heard tearing.

Then they saw the fog swirl before. Here, they knew what this meant.

"Go!" Order their commander, turning his horse around.

Echoing the orders of their commander in the face of hopeless odds, they turned and ran. The rangers through the tree, and the knights on horseback.

Soon, the storm was upon them.

* * *

 **Elsa pov**

I perked up, thinking I had heard something.

I sat up, looking around to see where it had come from. I noticed that I couldn't see…Death…anywhere.

 _I can't just keep calling him that_ I thought with a frown, rubbing one of my eyes tiredly.

 _It's…well it's not a proper name. Plus it just feels weird._

I brushed the snow off me that had enveloped my sleeping form like a blanket. Surprisingly enough, this was the best I had slept in a long, _long_ , while.

A flickering of light caught my eye, and I turned towards the center of the clearing and saw something strange.

It was a fire…sort of.

Instead of burning with a range of reds and oranges, it was a cool blue. It was not unlike the light emitted from…Death's lantern. Walking up toward it, I experimentally moved my hand near it. To my surprise, it felt warm. Not hot, but warm. A comforting, calming, and safe warm.

 _Weird…_ I thought, entranced by it.

"Having fun?" Said a voice from behind me.

Startled, I spun around and fell on my behind. I looked up to see…him…standing above me.

"H-hello …Death." I greeted him.

He towered over me, the sun filtering through the trees behind his head, masking his face in shadow. But I knew it was him. He had a certain ineffable aspect about his sheer presence that made him impossible to mistake for anyone else.

 _Probably has to do with him being Death_.

He stared at me for a moment, just long enough for me to grow uncomfortable, before he looked away and approached the fire.

"I got breakfast." He said, sitting down before the flames, using his crystalline staff to ease himself down.

"You did?" I wondered, "Where?"

He raised his staff into the air, where the glowing tip of it seemed to…puncture the sky, causing a hole to open up into the black abyss of the Void. No sooner had it opened then did three dead deer fall into a heap from the hole and onto the snowy ground.

I cried out and leapt up in surprise, not expecting something so…fantastic…to happen.

"There." He answered, turning back to the fire.

"This is our breakfast?" I said out loud, looking at the massive feast he had gotten for us.

"Not ours, yours." He corrected, "I have no need for food."

"Because you're…Death…right?" I gulped.

He simply nodded.

Looking back at the meal he had gathered, I could feel my stomach rumble in hunger. I wanted to get to work prepping the food, but first, I needed to do something.

"Um…Death?" I began, walking up next to him.

"Yes?" He responded, turning to me slowly.

"Is there, uh, some kind of…" I tried to say, nervousness stealing my words.

All the while, he just looked at me patiently and calmly.

Taking Papa's advice, I took a deep breath and calmed myself before I spoke again.

"Is there anything you would like me to call you?" I asked, "Other than Death?"

"…I don't much care what you call me, frankly." H answered dismissively

"But I do!" I said firmly, "And Death just…"

"It's not a proper name!" I exclaimed.

"A proper name?" He questioned

"I mean, that's not a name I can connect to." I began to explain, "That's a name that evokes a feeling. It has too much power behind it, too much weight in it. It doesn't feel right to call you it."

"But it is fitting, is it not?"

"It is, it's just that it's so weird to call you it. It's a name that evokes fear." I explained.

He stared at me for a moment again, making me feel nervous, before he spoke once more.

"…You have quite the vocabulary for a young girl," He noted.

I blushed, embarrassed by the surprising compliment, "Er, well, I am the princess. Papa wanted to make sure I was ready for the throne, and that meant lots of books and tutors." I explained.

"Hmm…" He considered, "Still, you seem quite intelligent for an 11 year old human."

"Thank you." I whispered, my face aflame as I looked away.

I never was one good at taking praise. I rarely took too much pride in my talents. I just did what was required of me, I didn't do it for praise.

 _I didn't, right?_ I considered, wondering, for a brief moment, about the more extensive nature of my thought process.

Shaking my head, I got refocused on my original topic, "But I need a better name for you!" I firmly declared.

He hummed again in thought, turning back to the fire.

"A real name!" I continued.

"I can't just keep calling you Death, it's not…proper. I mean, what if I wanted to talk to someone else about you? I couldn't just call you death, they'd thing I was dropped on my head!" I exclaimed.

Still, he sat there, looking at the fire. Honestly, I wasn't entirely sure if he had been listening to me or not. He could have just taken my words as the words of an insolent child and tuned me out.

"I suppose…" He began, pulling me from my thoughts.

"There is another name that your kind has called me. Several, in fact, but one above the others."

"There is?" I asked, a glimmer of hope blossoming within me.

"Yes." He nodded

"They called me Odin."

"…Odin?" I blinked

"It carries a lot of meaning in another land, and in another time." He explained.

"If you say so…" I murmured skeptically.

"You did ask for a better name, did you not?"

"No no, I did I did," I dismissed with a wave my hand and a defeated sigh

"Thank you for giving me your name." I said graciously. "Or, well, a better name to whatever I was going to call you."

"What were you going to call me?" He asked with mild curiosity.

I shrugged, "I don't know, I'd probably have a good idea later."

He hummed in acknowledgment.

"…Are you going to eat your food?" He finally asked

I looked at the three deer that he had plopped down in the clearing.

"Er…" I began reluctantly, both hungry, but not really wanting to eat them as they were. They were whole, not prepared for me like Papa used to do.

"They still have their skin on them, I'd have to skin them first." I explained, hoping that that would be enough to get him off my back.

When I turned back to him, however, he was holding out a knife made of ice in his hand out to me, handle first.

"Uh…" I blinked, staring at the knife.

I glanced up at his eyes, and saw him looking at me expectantly.

"You…want me to skin it?" I said in disbelief.

"You are the one who wanted it skinned. It doesn't much matter to me how you want to eat it." He pointed out.

"C-could you skin it?" I asked nervously.

While I couldn't really see much of his face since it was shrouded in the shadows of his clock, I got the distinct impression that his eyebrow was arcing up at my statement.

"R-right…" I said, taking the knife slowly.

"U-um…what am I going to cook it though? I can't eat it raw." I brought up, desperately trying to think of anything to delay this.

"…why not?"

"Because that's gross!" I exclaimed. "And I could get sick, and die, and…"

I trailed off as I saw that he just seemed to be becoming more and more confused and amused.

"…Get sick?" He questioned

"…Y-yeah?" I responded.

"You can't get sick." He answered.

"I can't?" I asked, confused.

"Your body would kill any foreign microbes far before they could do any damage. They would never survive living in the body of the Disciple of the Void." He explained.

"…What are…microbes?" I asked, never having heard of the word.

He chuckled, and merely said, "Another time."

I grumbled, not liking being in the dark about this.

"Well, I'm still going to cook that deer. I refuse to eat it raw." I stated adamantly

"Why not use the fire?" He asked, gesturing to the icy blue flames before us.

"Would that work?" I inquired.

"Why would it not?" He responded

"Er, well, I tested the flames myself. They're warm, not hot." I answered. I had felt real fire before, and it had always felt nice and hot. Like it should.

"That's because this isn't normal fire." He answered.

"I figured that." I pouted, "Normal fire isn't cool blue, nor does it feel warm."

"True." He conceded.

Turning back to the fire, he put his hand inside the cracking cerulean blaze before us. Rather than flinch in pain his hand curled in it, twisting the fires within. Then he pulled his hand out, and inside his palm he held a small flame.

"This is fire created from the Void." He said,

I looked in awe as the fire danced in his palm, perfectly content, not burning it. The shades of blues mixed around, flickering brightly in the cradle of his fingers.

"Fire made from the Void." I whispered, carefully inching my finger to the fire. When it touched it, it seemed to curl around my finger, as if it was embracing me, as if it longed for my touch.

"So, Void-Fire?" I suggested looking up at him.

He shrugged, "If you want."

"But wait." I stopped, confused, "I thought the Void was like the land of the dead?"

"Why would you be able to make fire from the 'End of everything'?" I asked.

He nodded, accepting my point, "You see, the Void has much energy within it. It is simply that the energy it has pales in comparison to the emptiness of its existence."

"It is possible to borrow from the Void to create things. It, of course, must return. And it all has a price. But it can be quite useful from time to time." He acknowledged.

"Oh…ok." I nodded, seeing what he was saying.

"I'll teach you more about it later." He said, pulling his hand away. "But now you should eat."

I was unable to hold back a groan at his prodding. The worst part was that I knew he was right, I just _really_ didn't want to actually do all the work in putting it together. I'd never done anything like that before, and it just seemed gross. That, and I really wasn't in the mood for wasting hours just preparing the food when I could be eating it.

"Why are you so intent on me eating?" I asked, trying to change topics.

"Because I'd rather not deal with you when you become truly hungry." He answered.

I blinked, "What do you mean? I'm always hungry."

"I'm talking about when the hunger overwhelms you and takes control. The more hungry you get, the more inhuman you become. Once you lose control, you would become driven by nothing but the desire to feed, becoming little more than a monster of flesh and ice." He explained coldy, "And I'd rather not deal with that."

I gulped nervously at his warning, remembering the twisted image of myself he had shown me, as well as the danger I was to my family.

"Ok," I admitted, "I see your point."

"Good," He nodded, a small measure of relief in his voice, "You need food after all the sleep you got."

"Sleep?" I asked, wondering what he meant by that.

"You've been asleep for about a week." He answered

"A Week!" I exclaimed.

"Yes."

"Why!?"

"Because you're still growing and changing. You need as much food and sleep as you can get." He explained.

I sat there for a moment, still dumbfounded that I had slept for an entire week. In the end I just sighed, relenting myself to the reality that was my life now.

Taking a breath of courage I walked over to the first deer, knife in hand. I stood over it for a second, trying to both gather up the guts to do what I need to, and trying to figure out how to even go about it.

I got down on my knees in the snow, putting both hands on the handle of the cold blade, and held it high above my head. I paused again, reluctant to dirty my hands with this.

 _I've never done anything like this, what if I mess up?_ I wondered, doubting myself.

 _Plus it would be really, really, gross._ I added.

But then, almost as an act of defiance, I felt a sharp pang in my gut.

 _But I'm so_ _ **hungry**_

Steeling myself and saying a short prayer for strength, I slammed the knife down, hunger and desperation driving me to do what the rest of me could not. The blade plunged into the flesh of the deer easily.

Surprised, I pulled the knife out with a slick wet sound. The icy blade was covered in still wet blood and the crimson juices oozed out of the wound of the deer I had made. Instead of bile rising in my throat, as I expected, as the metallic scent of the blood reached me, I felt my stomach rumble in desperate hunger. I felt my mouth water at the tantalizing scent and promise of _food_. I had to resist the urge to lick the blade clean.

 _A taste wouldn't hurt, right?_ I considered

Shaking my head, I pushed those horrid thoughts from my mind.

 _There's a proper way to do this, and I'm not going to let myself give in to temptation._ I thought firmly.

Looking back at the deer, I thought, _besides, as papa always said_

 _In for a penny, in for a pound._

* * *

"My lord." The man began, rousing the King's attention.

"Yes, Kronson?" the king said tiredly, exhaustion and worry written all over his face.

Kronson cringed a bit upon seeing the once strong, proud, and joyous face of his king in such a state. His dark and sunken eyes had lost much of their light, and his hair was disheveled.

"T-there is news from the company of Silver Vargar you sent to look for your daughter." He began, knowing full well where this was going.

"There is?" the king said, a spark of hope lighting up in his eyes.

"It…it is not good, my lord." The servant warned. "In fact, it is quite distressing."

"What, why? What has happened?" The king asked, panic growing within him.

"There are reports of…spirits…my lord." The man said with difficulty, not even sure he could report such a fanciful thing to the king.

"Spirits?" The king repeated incredulously

"Yes," The man confirmed, "Spirits."

"Dangerous spirits," He added, pulling out a small book containing the report, "Apparently several squads of soldiers were either killed or severely hurt by attacks made by these spirits."

At his words, the king grew serious, his face becoming hard, and he sat up in his throne.

"What kind of spirits, Kronson?" He asked with a weight and gravity that the servant had not been prepared for.

"Uh-er, well," He sputtered for a moment, taken off guard by how seriously the king was taking these fanciful reports.

Truth be told, if not for his daughter and the strange events that happened in the castle immediately prior to her disappearance, he might be more skeptical. Most people didn't really think that magic was real. Or, as was more often the case, they might think they did in a fanciful way, but not in a real hard way. They might think that dangerous spirits of winter exist out there, but they don't believe in a threat coming from them in the same way they would worry about wolves coming to steal their cattle.

And outside of the most trusted of the royal staff, no one knew about Elsa's…affliction.

So to hear the king of the land take such an incredible report seriously was surprising for the poor servant.

"The men are calling them 'Ice Wraiths'" he began, "Apparently one squad was tracking the princess when they happened upon a frozen pond in front of a cave. When they were about to enter, the spirit attacked, injuring one man and killing another before Sgt Gunvaldsson killed it by firing a bullet at it."

"Ice Wraiths…" The ming mused for a moment, tasting the words upon his tongue. "I thought they were but a legend?"

"Well, the soldiers reports seem to say otherwise, my lord." Kronson commented before turning back to the report.

"It was then that dozens, perhaps hundreds, more spirits rose from the mist of the frozen lake, and swarmed the squad. Only two men mad it out, Sgt Gunvaldsson and Sir Ostberg, and the horse of the third Knight of the squad, Sir Westerberg." He continued.

"The horse of Sir Westerberg?" The king questioned.

"Yes, technically Sir Westerberg made it back to safety, but he died shortly afterward of frostbite. It seems whatever the spirit's touch freezes." He explained.

"I see…" The king said, massaging his bearded chin as he contemplated the meaning of this. "Anything else about these Wraiths?"

"It seems they could pass through most obstacles like they weren't even there. Shields were useless, their swords barely had any affect, their armor didn't even phase them. It wasn't until Sgt Gunvaldsson shot the spirit that it died." He elaborated.

"I see…" Agnarr said with a frown, unsettled by these reports. "You may go."

"My lord," He bowed before taking his leave.

"First my daughter, then a blizzard, and now spirits?" He murmured, "What did we do to deserve this?"

* * *

 **Elsa pov**

 _I never want to do that again_

After several hours of work, I had finally eaten the deer.

It was hard, it was messy, and it was not a very refined end product.

But it was also incredibly satisfying. To my surprise, I actually ended up eating all three deer. Of course, despite that, I still had that hunger inside me.

Most curiously of all, however, was the fact I was starting to feel a measure of cold. Not really cold, honestly, more like it was a bit cool outside.

When I asked Odin why, he said, "It's because you are becoming full."

"Yes, but _why_?" I insisted.

He hummed in thought as he considered how to answer, something of a habit I've noticed from him.

"...I believe the best way to describe it would be as such," He began, pulling his hand up and summoning an object of ice in his hand.

It looked like an hourglass made of ice and some liquid, probably water.

"You and the Void are linked. The Void is why you have this Hunger, it draws on you and demands to be fed. It is from this demand of the Void that you draw strength." He explained, "The more you go without feeding or the more you owe the Void, the more you hunger, and the more inhuman you become."

"However, satisfying the Void from feeding in any method appeases it, and it rescinds from you, and you regain some of you humanity."

"Wait, so…the hungrier I am, the more…wrong…I become?" I asked, "and the more I eat, the more normal I get?"

"More or less." He answered.

"Wha-" I paused, second guessing myself. "What if I got really full?"

Once again I could feel that impression of his brow raising silently in confusion.

"Could I get so full I became normal again? No powers, none of this wrongness, none of this." I clarified, "Could I cure myself?"

"Yes." He said simply.

I blinked. His response was so instant and sure that it caught me off guard. I had expected more consideration and deliberation then what he had done.

"I can?" I repeated, unable to believe it

"Indeed." He nodded.

"How?" I asked, desperate to know. I had to find out how to fix myself. I was wrong, and if there was a way to fix me, to let me go back home to Mama and Papa and Anna, I would take it. I didn't care how dangerous or reckless it was, I would do it.

"Humans."

I stopped.

I just….stopped.

"Wa-what?" I asked, almost hysterical.

 _I must have misheard him_

"Humans." He repeated. "The best way to sever your connection would be to feed on humans."

"n-no." I denied, shaking my head, "That can't be true."

"You know very well it is." He responded casually.

"Did you not partake in the feast of your sister?"

I froze, ice filling my veins. My heart stopped as horror filled my being.

Because he was _right_.

"h-how do you know about that?" I stuttered, shaken by these revelations.

"I am the prime embodiment of the Void. Nothing you have done with it has escaped my notice." He answered.

I gulped, trying and failing to push down the fear welling up within me. I tried to force away this disgusting bile rising in my throat at these thoughts. And most of all, I tried to stop from salivating at the memory, to stop the hunger from taking over.

But I could feel those pangs in my stomach again, those gaping wounds in my soul crying out for a feast.

I knew what it wanted, I knew he was right, and I knew how good it felt…

 _No!_ I thought, furiously shaking my head.

"The fact of the matter is that one's life force is a source of great energy." He continued, heedless of my despair.

"Namely souls."

 _No no no!_ I denied, knowing, in my heart, where he was going with this, but refusing to accept this reality he gave me.

"And humans, especially, have quite large souls." He pointed out. "If you want to sever your ties with the Void, you would need to consume them or something of equal or greater energy."

"C-can't I just eat lesser things?" I hoped, "I mean, a bunch of animals could equal a human, right?"

"Potentially." He conceded.

"But you would have to overcome the rate at which the Void within you grows. Something that becomes increasingly difficult the more you fill it." He explained. "You'd probably need to kill several dozen deer within moments of each other to do it."

"Several dozen deer for one human?" I repeated.

I gulped again, insidious thoughts crawling in my mind. The hunger gnawed within, a parasite on my mind, stealing my purity and feeding my putrid thoughts I did not want.

"M-maybe…" I whispered, mostly to myself, "Maybe I could eat one."

"If it would fix me…if it would end this hunger…maybe I could do it?" I began to seriously consider, "Maybe I could eat someone?"

"Some _one_?" he repeated.

My heart caught in my throat as dread replaced the blood within me.

"You would not have to consume _one_ human." He corrected.

"You would have to consume a whole family."

"…what?" I said with wide, horrified, eyes.

 _Please no._

 _Please,_ _ **Please**_ _don't let be so_

"Now, I suppose you don't necessarily need a family, specifically. But you would most likely need about 5 humans at one time to sever your ties." He continued

" _Five_?" I said, my mind feeling numb at this point. I thought nothing else could shock me, nothing else could be worse.

"Yes." He confirmed "About five, depending on their age, should do it. You'd need to consume them within the span of…an hour or so."

"At least, for now."

"What do you mean, _for now?_ " I questioned, both needing to know, but also knowing full well I would not like what I heard.

"The older you grow, the more the Void within you grows. The stronger your connection with it. You'll get stronger, but so too will your hunger." He explained, "It also means it will require more to sever the connection."

"So it's only going to get worse over time." I murmured, the shocks rocking me like a series of waves, each one worse than the last.

In the end, it was too much. I couldn't take it.

I let out a choked sob, curling in on myself. The hunger within me was _agonizing_ , the meal I had had doing little to feed it now. But worst of all it was the crushing amount of pure despair within me.

When I had met Death, there was hope he could fix me, make me right again. But now…now that hope had curled up and died.

 _How could I do something like that?_ I asked myself, _I can't kill a family. I couldn't kill people, it's wrong_

 _But I'm so_ _ **hungry**_ I considered, the pangs screaming out from deep within me.

I bit my lip hard enough to draw blood, bitter tears streaking down my face.

"Why me?" I sobbed. "Why am I cursed?"

"Gods, I'm so hungry." I whimpered.

Suddenly I heard the crunch of something hitting the snow in front of me. I could… _feel_ the snow shift around it. Looking up, I saw it.

It was a rabbit.

Just laying there.

"Eat." Odin said, gesturing to the rabbit.

"What good is a rabbit going to do?" I complained with a sniffle. "Three deer couldn't even fill me for long."

"This...is a bit different." He responded cryptically.

I frowned, far from being in a mood for games. Then I felt it. I could feel it through the snow, strangely enough.

The rabbit was still warm.

I gulped

 _Warm_

"It's still alive," I said, one part wonder, one part horror.

"It is." He said simply.

"A-and you want me to…?"

"Eat."

I swallowed again, saliva building in my mouth as I looked at it. The rabbit was still, yet I could see it's little chest moving up and down with it's breath.

"Why isn't it moving?" I asked.

"It's asleep." He answered.

"A-are you going to kill it?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"That courtesy is for you."

"B-but-"

"Calm yourself." He stopped me, "and _feast_."

I gulped again, feeling the mass of saliva crawl its way down my throat. The hunger in me seemed to rise to impossible heights, as if growing in anticipation of the meal before me.

Finally, I reached out and grabbed the rabbit by the back of the neck, pulling it up toward me. I held it in both hands for a moment, just looking at it. It's eyes were still shut, it looked like it didn't even know what was happening.

And it felt so warm. So incredibly warm. So _impossibly_ warm.

For a moment, I just sat there, basking in the heat flowing into my hands. I inhaled a breath of fresh air from it. Fresh, _warm_ air. After all this cold, the warm felt impossibly good. Just touching life felt intoxicating.

I leaned in closer, taking the sweet scent of its life. I buried my nose its soft fur, basking in the warmth radiating from it. I opened my mouth, taking in a mouthful of that warm air. That living scent blurring my mind. The hunger inside me rumbling in anticipation.

 _More_ I thought

 _I need more_

My mouth opened wider, my muscles stretching my jaw beyond its limits. I could hear and feel the cracks and pops as my jaw as it opened farther and farther. My tongue stretched out, tasting the hot fur of the rabbit. As I did, I began to feel it squirm in my hands.

 _Its awake_ I idly noticed, but I was too far gone to care.

Instead, ran my tongue across its neck, tasting it intimately.

Then, I bit down. I squeezed my teeth around its neck tightly. I could feel it frantically panic. Hear it squeal in terror. But I didn't care. I _needed_ this.

I bit down harder and harder, feeling the soft give of the meat underneath. Then, suddenly, I tasted it. The warm juices of the rabbit pouring into my mouth. It was like sweet heaven on my tongue, filling my body with its heat.

 _Crunch_

And like that, I had bitten through its spine, ending its futile struggles.

Biting down harder, I severed the last ties connecting the chunk to the rest of the rabbit's body. Ripping the last vestiges of tendons and muscle away, I chewed the piece of meat and bone in my mouth for a moment, savoring the delicious juices filling my mouth. I rolled it around on my tongue, ignoring the fur and focusing on the warmth and succulent flavor.

Finally, I swallowed the tender meat. I felt it crawl its way down my throat, the lump of flesh worming its way down my esophagus. The remnants of heat pouring into my body.

With each bit, I could feel more and more of its life force flow into me. I could feel the heat seeping into my skin. I could feel its death fueling me.

And with my last bite, I felt something else pass into me. Something big, something filled with bright energy, something incredibly filling.

I had felt it the last time, when I had killed the bird, but it wasn't this intense.

"Was that its soul?" I wondered out loud.

"Yes." Odin answered, pulling me from my thoughts.

"That was…good." I admitted, coming back to my sense.

I looked back down at my hands, now covered in still warm blood. I gulped, swallowing the last vestiges of the rabbit.

"I just ate a rabbit." I thought, stupefied

"You did," Odin noted.

"Why was that so _good_?" I wondered.

"Consuming living things will always be innately better and more filling than dead things. In addition, the hungrier you are, the better eating _anything_ will feel." Odin answered.

I nodded dumbly, still stunned by my act of carnage and hunger. The fact that it filled me with such happiness, put a warm feeling in my gut, and filled me up so easily gave me comfort. But it also gave me great concern. It was here that I truly began to realize how dangerous I was. I had come so close to doing that to Anna. I had almost _eaten_ her.

 _I guess they were right_ I thought

 _I am a monster._

* * *

 _A/n:_

 _And like that, I've given you a taste of the true meat of this story._

 _So yes, Elsa did just eat a live Rabbit._

 _I did a lot to describe the mechanics of the nature of her connection to the Void and what that means._

 _I also decided to give her the chance to regain her full humanity, at the cost of committing an atrocity._

 _In other news, I decided to introduce guns. Looking at Frozen, it looks like they're not really in middle ages europe, and instead closer to the "modern age". Before the industrial revolution, to be sure, but definitely after the advent of guns._

Guns are old, they've been around for roughly 600 years in europe, back since the late 14th century. Based on their outfits and tech they did have, I'd say Frozen could easily take place in a tech period equivalent to somewhere between 1600-1900 or so.

 _But since it's a fantasy land known as Arendale, I can play with that a bit._

 _For now, however, they're very very select. Only a few people will have them in the kingdom._

 _I chose a Wheelock pistol as their gun because it was reliable, relatively, fast, and usable in bad weather like rain. Something important for the snowy kingdom. Also, it was expensive as fuck because it was so complicated. This is another reason it's going to be so_ rare, _because it costs a pretty penny._

 _Also, I picked them 'cause they're classy as fuck._

 _And yes, I did use Ice Wraiths from Skyrim_

 _And spirits are going to be a thing_

 _I'm going to be pulling from a number of sources to give me inspiration for a lot of the dark fantasy themes I'm going for in here. Later I might change the wraiths to be more original than ice snakes, but for right now I thought it fitting._

 _I've also decided that I will, actually, be displaying some things about Anna's childhood since, well, it's not going to be so boring anymore._

 _The 4th and final chapter of the trial period for this story should, **should** , be coming out in mid-late February. I wanted it out at the end of this month, but that's obviously not happening. _

_In the meantime, the rest you all have a good one and I hope you enjoyed the story._


End file.
